2020 was a marathon. 2021 feels no less difficult. But it brings with it a certainty: that our lives will be more digital than before. We’ll continue to buy, learn and share online more than we did before.

That certainty brings with it an urgency because however much we accomplished last year, there is more to do. Moreover, the speed with which we deliver it will be a key differentiator in terms of performance.

You will have seen the stats on digital adoption in 2020. If not, Benedict Evans has a thorough set here. I don’t need to make the case for a more digital future. What I’d like to do here is share some thoughts on how to get there more quickly.

Last year, we were all caught on the hop. This year, we’re all exhausted so how to deliver with urgency?

Deliver less

This should be obvious but it doesn’t feel like it is. If you have a long list of things that you need to do. It will take a long time. If you shorten the list. It should take less time. Ruthlessly prioritise. Deliver less, but do so quickly.

From experience, prioritisation is something we all know we should do and yet are very bad at. It’s hard to tell someone that you won’t help with their project because it’s not as important as xyz.

Equally, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve discussed priorities and someone’s told me that everything’s important. I’m sure it is, but somethings are more important than others and choices have to be made.

There’s also a cult of busyness out there. Everyone’s incredibly busy all the time. But really they’re not. They’re just not prioritising correctly. You’re doing it. I’m doing it too. We just need to break this negative cycle.

Get beyond the urgent

We all have a massive to-do list, whether it’s written down or held in our heads. It never ends; it only gets longer. The urgent stuff gets done. But it keeps piling up. The important stuff, the things that need thought, where progress really lies, remain untouched. So how do we get beyond the urgent?

The first step is to question the urgency. Just because something has a quick turnaround time, is it really urgent? Sometimes, when presented with a last minute deadline, you shouldn’t make a coffee and settle in for an evening of work, you should just say, “no.”

Some random report needs to be sent by the end of Friday? Why? Who’s looking at it over the weekend? Why can it wait until Monday afternoon? Don’t write off your Friday afternoon – a golden spot for working on things without being disturbed – for some random request. Keep it for the important things that really make a difference.

Does it really take that long?

How long does a task take? Do you really know? How much time are you really spending doing something and, crucially, is it worth it? If you’re honest with yourself, you’re probably spending some time doing things that don’t help you make progress. If you really analyse it, it will likely surprise you. I’ve seen comms folk spend too much time editing/reviewing things. I’ve seen marketers spend a disproportionate amount of time on things that deliver little or no performance uplift. I’ve done both of these things myself far too much.

Defining year

We know this is a defining year. The gains made now will pay off for years to come. So how are you going to deliver with urgency? Let me know on Twitter @kchadda.

Some things never change
Like the way PRs drone on about PESO
Some things stay the same
Like the way no one else cares

Apologies to the good people at Disney for massacring this classic from Frozen 2, but it’s a fitting example of popular culture helping to capture a truth.

Comms folk have talked about PESO, and their place in it, for a very long time. Arguably, it’s important to know what you do, where your specialism is, and your place in the wider marketing and PR mix. But it’s not all about you, at least not in the eyes of customers or stakeholders or whoever it is your work is seeking to engage.

Moreover, it’s a pointless conversation. Pick a spot and own it. Pick lots of spots and own them all. The act of doing is more important than the act of stating.

What matters, like really really matters, is your contribution to achieving whatever it is you’re supposed to be helping to achieve.

Consumer campaign? Sell the widgets. Not your job to be selling the widgets? Then move people along the widget purchasing funnel. Move them from unaware to aware. Or from “I might buy it one day” to “I might buy it one day soon”. However marginal the shuffle, shuffle them along.

Lobbyist? Can you move stakeholders from thinking your issue is kind of important to really quite important indeed?

The media you use isn’t the important thing. It’s just the tool you use to deliver outcomes. Organise your toolbox however you want. But let’s all agree to stop talking about it.

An SEO FAQ focused Christmas message. Wishing you all the joys and blessings of the season.

It’s autumn. The leaves are falling, the nights are drawing in and the rain is falling. Something else is falling: apples off trees. It’s harvest time for Britain’s apple farmers. In orchards across the country Braeburns and Granny Smiths are being picked by the cartload. They’ll be sorted, separated, stored, sold or squished to a pulp and made into cider.

Apple pickers, whether using machines or their own hands do an amazing job. They gather a valuable bounty. The quality with which they do their job materially affects the size of the harvest. Fruit picked too late or too carelessly is lost. Efficiency is the watchword.

However, as efficient as the apple pickers are, there is a limit to the harvest they can bring in. They don’t plant the trees, feed or protect them. They don’t control the size of the orchard or the weather. That’s in someone else’s gift, or in the case of the weather, in no one’s control.

So, there’s my simple overview of the role of digital media.

How do you like them apples?

Sarah Waddington doesn’t stop. She’s done a huge amount for the PR industry. Perhaps her greatest contribution is the FuturePRoof series. It’s forward looking and practical. You can’t say that about most of the words published about PR each year, and there is no shortage of writing about PR. Sarah was kind enough to share copy of the latest edition with me before publication.

Edition four seeks to celebrate ethnic minority talent. There is a lot of writing, across a number of industries doing that this year. That’s a good thing. Spurred by horrific events, momentum has built behind changing the status quo. Now is the time to capitalise on it.

The collection is dedicated to Elizabeth Bananuka, another unstoppable force driving PR towards equality, and her Blueprint programme. Elizabeth’s tweets sometimes make for uncomfortable reading. This is a good thing. In a similar vein, the first four contributions to this new edition of FuturePRoof make for uncomfortable reading. This is also good.

They ask fundamental questions about the difference between the PR industry’s proclamations about diversity and its lack of accomplishment. About the different between words and deeds. About accepting that, indeed all of us, are racist in some respect.

Deeper in, the subject matter brings strong insight on targeting, broadcast, public affairs and social media.

Alicia Solanki’s chapter on targeting based on culture and behaviour stood out. It goes beyond segmentation to something deeper. Something we all intuitively understand, but she brings process and clarity to it, citing P&G’s ‘smart audience work.’ It’s fair to say where  the behemoths of FMCG go, we all follow.

Another highlight for me was the contribution from Dr Joanna Abeyie MBE. Looking at how we attract, retain and nurture diverse talent. It looks at long term planning, progression and really opening up and listening. For me, and I imagine many others, the events of this year have thrown out a lot of difficult management challenges. I really valued the reminder to get back to long term thinking and building resilience by planning, not reacting.

I’ll not turn this into a chapter by chapter list, but before closing I’d like to get back to being uncomfortable.

PR people, with our obsession with storytelling and framing, instinctively put everything in a positive light. Publicly at least, difficult conversations are skirted around. Sometimes that’s a good thing. It’s avoids confrontation. Right now, it’s not a good thing. We need to have uncomfortable conversations.

Learn more about #FuturePRoof 4 here.